The chill cut through Cassie's thin shirt like a knife as she ran into the shuttle bay and down the stairs to the dark generator. Even though the scattered space heaters were turned on, their warm orange glow was barely keeping the creeping frost coating the floor at bay. The red warning lights flashed repeatedly, making every shadow dance wildly and drowning out the usual purple glow of the generator.

She'd lost Aqeel somewhere in the corridors. He'd arrived long before her and already removed an access panel from the rear of the generator, leaving nuts and bolts scattered all across the floor. Frost coated the huge metal casing and the wires within. Cassie's eyes wandered over the well-organized switches and labelled pipes as she caught her breath, each pant creating a faint cloud in front of her face.

It felt like only a second had passed before Aqeel noticed her. "Watch that screen." He pointed over at the computer terminal next to the silver cylinder.

"Right," Cassie mumbled breathlessly.

This was the computer connected to the dark generator, the screen set to display it's interior systems, what appeared to be another maze of pipes. It took her a moment to pinpoint the connections to the ship, the output showing an alarmingly high pressure reading conveniently displayed in a little red box. The system was trying it's hardest to maintain the flow rate, but the falling numbers indicated it was already failing.

As she had been ordered, Cassie watched as the pumps hit their maximum power. "The flow rate is falling," she announced.

"Ice has already started building up around the inside of the pipes," Aqeel grumbled, his arm half buried in the guts of the machine. "Damn it."

"So they're freezing?" Cassie's voice fluctuated unevenly.

"As long as there's flow, they won't freeze completely," Aqeel replied. "We still got a chance."

"You're sure about that?" Cassie asked nervously.

"No," Aqeel muttered, his voice eclipsed by an expected grinding sound from the generator.

"We've got a blocked pipe." Cassie scowled. Fluid was still flowing. She'd forgotten that Earth had the need to have triple redundancy on everything.

Aqeel hit the metal casing, making a loud bang that made Cassie jump. "Don't just stare at it," he shouted. "Route around it!"

Cassie followed his order, adjusting the valves accordingly. It did little to remedy the situation. "The temperature is still dropping, the remaining tubes are going to freeze." She watched the sensor readings closely. "Actually, they're already freezing."

"As soon as they freeze solid, we're as good as dead." Aqeel stepped back from the generator, shaking his hands to warm them back up. "Try to reroute as many as you can."

Every time Cassie found a new route, it seemed to close itself off almost immediately. More pipes were freezing. Too many. "There's too many blocks, I can't keep rerouting the coolant," she stated. "It's not going to work."

Aqeel had already crawled back inside the generator. "Forget about cooling the ship, just send everything to the other heating station," he ordered, his voice muffled, followed by a series of snipping sounds. "We only need one anyways."

Cassie found the single valve on the large pipe that ran to the heating stations, the pressure was high, but it was only half open. She could open it further, increase the flow, maybe raise the temperature of the generator back to normal. It would probably work.

She swallowed nervously.

Then she put the command in. An error message appeared, the valve wouldn't open. "We have a problem," she yelled. "I can't open it, it's giving me a control system error."

"What?!" Aqeel exclaimed loudly, with a faint bang followed by an annoyed grunt.

Cassie tried the command a second time, to the same effect. "It has to be a problem with the motor."

Aqeel grumbled gruffly. There were a series of clicks and all the valves turned grey. A connection error popped up, then vanished as they can back online.

"Try it now," Aqeel ordered.

A third try gave her the same error. "Still not working," Cassie stated quietly, shaking her head sadly. "I don't think there's any way to fix it from here."

"Get out of my way!" Aqeel jumped out of the generator, raced over to the computer, and pushed her aside just to frantically enter the same set of commands Cassie had just put in.

The same error kept popping up.

Aqeel glared at the screen. "It's stuck," he declared. "The motor isn't strong enough. Lowest bidder. Cheap crap."

Cassie stood behind him, wringing her hands nervously.

"I'm going in there," Aqeel declared, his face hard and determined.

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"What?!" Cassie's eyes went wide. She couldn't believe he was serious. Her jaw dropped as Aqeel started turning the big hand wheel on the generator's door. "You can't, it's too dangerous!"

Aqeel's bare hand stuck to the frosted metal, he pulled it off, swearing colorfully. "Nah, it's just a bit chilly." He paused to grab a pair of heavy duty work gloves from one of his pockets. "I'll be fine with these."

"But that's not protocol!" Cassie blurted out, staring at him in shock.

"If we let this go, we'll fall out of dark mode then all be dead." Aqeel gave the wheel a firm twist, then pulled.

The heavy metal groaned as it swung open, revealing how the ice crystals had built up on the inside. A crisp fog flowed down and began spreading across the floor. The interior was basked in a low reddish glow, nearly the same tone as the red flashing warning light above the door.

Aqeel whistled lowly as the temperature in the bay dropped like a rock. "I'll have this fixed in a jiffy."

Cassie stared at him, mouth agap, her frozen posture having nothing to do with the chilly air.

"Next lesson: the rulebook doesn't apply out here." Aqeel gave her a confident smile before ducking inside. He pulled the door shut behind him, the wheel spinning a little before going silent.

"Shit!" Cassie exclaimed, far louder than was likely prudent. It took her a moment to remember that she was wearing a radio. "Aqeel?"

"Here." Aqeel's voice came through, clear and loud.

Cassie exhaled softly. "You need to get out of there, this is crazy," she insisted, her voice strained with emotion. "You'll freeze before you'll be able to fix it."

Aqeel scoffed. "Have a little faith in an old man now why don't you?"

"What's going on down there?" Helen interrupted over the radio.

"Sterile channel." Aqeel's voice was more a demand than request.

Cassie was briefly surprised at his tone, but no one objected, and the channel went silent.

"Cassie, keep your eye on that screen," Aqeel told her.

Cassie broke out of her trance. "Got it." She raced over to the computer, which proved less useful than previously. It only gave her information on the electrical and mechanical systems, it didn't show where Aqeel was, or any indication as to what he was doing.

She was left in the dark.

"What's happening in there?" Cassie asked hesitantly.

"Oof, getting my winter time for the month in here," Aqeel joked playfully.

Cassie tucked her hands under her arms, the chill was starting to get to her. "You should get out."

"It's not bad," Aqeel replied, sounding less than sincere.

Cassie scowled, keeping a watchful eye on the system's status. "The temperature is still dropping."

"Sweetheart, I noticed," Aqeel retorted. "But I already found the problem, it just needs a little elbow grease."

Cassie watched as the display updated, showing the valve fully open. "You've got it! Get out of there!"

"On my way back," Aqeel answered happily.

Cassie watched the readings closely. "There's something wrong," she said over the channel. "The temperature isn't going up."

"It'll start soon, give it a few minutes." There was a strange noise in the background, like chattering teeth.

"Not fast enough," Cassie added urgently. "You need to get out of there."

"I'm not taking the scenic route here," Aqeel answered in between grunts of exertion, his voice lower than before.

Cassie chewed the bottom of her lip as the seconds stretched out into minutes. "He's taking too long," she muttered, staring at the heavy door, which showed no sign of movement.

She grabbed a stray metal bar off the ground and wedged it through the wheel. She yanked on it, and when that didn't work, the door not even budging a little, she leveraged her weight to try to turn it instead.

The wheel didn't budge.

"Damn it." Cassie stepped back, the bar falling to the ground with a metallic clang. She quickly glanced around for anything she might be able to use to bust it open. She'd left all her tools downstairs, and it wasn't as if she had a spare blowtorch in her back pocket. Either way, the door didn't look frozen shut.

She ran back to the console. She'd missed it. A temperature warning. The temperature had gotten so low that the door had automatically sealed itself. She couldn't open it because it was locked.

So, she tried to unlock it.

The screen flashed red in denial. The system wouldn't let her override it. She tried a few more things, until she was out of ideas, but none of the workarounds worked.

"I can't open the door," Cassie said worriedly. "The safety protocol sealed it."

There was no response. She ran to stand in front of the door. It wasn't moving.

"Aqeel, you need to open it from the inside!" Cassie shouted. "I can't open it from out here!" She had the brilliant idea to kick the door with her steel toed boots, which was not as painless as she would have hoped, but made an incredibly loud noise nonetheless.

Her rising panic made seconds feel like minutes. The flashing red lights, combined with the purple and orange glows, weren't helping to her to calm down. She wasn't sure if her hands were shaking because of the cold or the excess adrenaline.

"Aqeel!" Cassie yelled at the top of her lungs. "Answer me!" She pounded against the door with her bare fists. Her hand stuck to the door. She yanked it off with a pained grunt, leaving a big red mark on her hand.

Cassie shook her injured hand while using the other to turn her radio off then on, hearing the audible click of a connection. It was working. "Aqeel?"

She waited in silence, wondering why she couldn't hear anyone else on the channel. Everyone should have been able to hear them, even if they were all at the front of the ship. But then why hadn't anyone shown up yet?

"I need help down here!" Cassie yelled urgently. "Engine room! Now!"

"We hear you." Danny's calm voice came through the speaker. "I'm five levels below you. Making my way up now."

"Right," Cassie breathed. She ran back to the computer, the temperature was already beginning to rise, but not enough to unlock the door. She tapped her foot impatiently. "Come on, rise faster, rise faster."

Cassie kept staring at the temperature reading, her lips pressed together. This was taking too long. Aqeel could be injured, unable to get out, or call for help. She couldn't just stand here waiting for help to arrive. She had to do something.

This was her fault, if she had... she needed to fix this.

"Fuck this." Cassie slammed her hands down on the console. "I'll override you myself. Stupid computer." She pulled a portable storage device out of her pocket, crawled underneath the console and slotted it into the back of the computer. Her foot tapped urgently until the screen changed. A couple minutes later, she'd disabled the electric lock, making the safety feature completely useless.

She grabbed a pair of gloves, not going to make the mistake of touching it bare handed again. They were too big, but they'd work. She grabbed the hand wheel and yanked.

For a moment, she feared it had frozen shut.

But it had moved. Just a millimeter.

Cassie pushed the wheel slowly until she heard a solid click. She pulled it backwards as hard as she could. The door popped open, a lot easier than she expected, leaving her off balance. She fell backwards, landing on the metal bar painfully.

The door swung open, and she screamed.